Broadband News

50meg broadband coming to Cathay Pacific flights in 2012

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair will be offering in-flight broadband connectivity on flights from 2012 following an
agreement signed by Cathay Pacific and Panasonic Avionics yesterday. The
eXConnect broadband service will provide broadband speeds of up to 50Mbps and
the eXPhone service will offer GSM phone services allowing passengers to use
their mobile phones in flight. The service will also offer a CX-branded free
entertainment portal including a range of content and live TV channels which
will be available and updated during the flight.

"Connectivity will form an important part of our overall customer
proposition. Having that connectivity integrated closely with our video on
demand entertainment system is especially valuable as it means that all
passengers will be able to use the service. We believe that being connected is
now an expected part of everyday life – not just for business purposes but also
to stay in touch with family and friends. This system will allow passengers to
be as 'in touch' as they wish to be while enjoying the great Cathay Pacific and
Dragonair service."

Alex McGowan, (Head of Product) Cathay Pacific

The system also offers other functionality to the airline such as being able
to monitor and transmit airline operational data in real time from the
aircraft. The system will be deployed across the full Cathay Pacific fleet,
subject to regulatory approval.

Comments

Great in-flight entertainment but the world's most uncomfortable seats -- at least, in economy class...

dedics

over 7 years ago

Really? tried Ryan Air lately?

The_Engineer

over 7 years ago

Or easy jet?

otester

over 7 years ago

Thankfully Ryan Air and Easy Jet don't do any long haul flights anyway :)

nmg196

over 7 years ago

is this really needed? i think not,overkill if you ask me

tommy45

over 7 years ago

It will be a long time before the system is approved to carry aircraft operational data. The approvals process for that is difficult and very time consuming. Iridium took 5 years to get their basic approval and further work is ongoing.

Adminstrative data - from the cabin maybe, but certainly not navigational, comms, aircraft condition or maintenance data from the flight deck.

mhc

over 7 years ago

LOL faster broadband 30,000ft in the air than the BT network will have in coming years at ground level. Time to move home to a 747?

CARPETBURN

over 7 years ago

"certainly not navigational, comms, aircraft condition or maintenance data from the flight deck."

You might be surprised. The loss of 228 lives on AF447 when two of three airspeed sensors failed identically at the same time, fooling the flight control systems, has led to considerable pressure for rapid introduction of better in-flight feedback.

Combine that with the becoming-routine use of tarted-up Ethernet for critical flight data (see CDN, Arinc664, AFDX, etc) and a lot of networky stuff starts,with (aiui) remarkably little separation between flight-critical stuff and other data..